Browse these pages to learn more about the work that Prof. Phil Manning and his colleagues undertake at the University of Manchester. This blog is written and updated by Phil Manning (STFC Leadership Fellow in Public Engagement).
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Saturday, 9 June 2012

Lost in Translation: Mussels, Muscles and Fossils…

Once again I find myself at the airport. Headed back to the
UK after the splendid SR2A meeting in New York and last weeks beam-time at the
Stanford Synchrotron. The SR2A meeting went well and many new contacts have
been made that will no-doubt shed some new light (possibly of the infrared
variety) upon the fossils that the group spend so much time studying.

Speaking of the fossils, these were my assemblage of
beasties that had been bathed in X-rays the prior week at SSRL. Travelling with
Dinosaurs can be fun…when I say fun, it can lead to some interesting
conversations with the airport security officers. I have now learnt to send my
shoes and belt first through the X-ray machine, as at least I have a sporting
chance of getting my feet and trousers secured before I hear those special
words, ‘Bag Check!’ This is partly why I now get to airports 3-4 hours before a
flight, as the ritual unpacking, gasps of amazement and repacking can dent your
smooth passage onward.

Today was no exception. I knew that the fossils in my bag
were both large, dense (plenty of iron sulphide) and obvious…in X-ray, my bag
must have looked like a petrified smorgasbord training video in the making for
my attentive security officers. Thankfully my shoes and belt did make it
through the scanner, just before the X-ray operator scanned my Pelicase of
Cretaceous goodies. Here s what happened next…

Security Officer, ‘Sir, is this your bag?’…’Yes, it is mine.
I have a pile of fossils in there’ I say this while trying to look as if this
is a normal thing to be carrying. ‘Sir, I will have to take your bag over there
and take a look’, happily I agree and head to the polished steel tables that
will see the dissection of my prehistoric case. ‘Is there ice in here Sir?’….’Ice’
I reply cautiously…’No, why should I have ice in my bag?’. He starts to open my bag carefully and takes
a peak inside, ‘Is there water in here Sir?’…My curiosity is now raised. Had
someone surreptitiously squirted water into my bag when I had not been looking?
Had one of my antediluvian beasties relieved themselves…somehow take a
prehistoric pee? Now beginning to look and feel a little confused I engaged
again trying to make sense of the line of questioning, ‘I often transport
fossils, and always try to avoid water and even ice’. The security officer
looks blankly at me…I decide to push-on... ‘While these are affectively stone,
water might still damage them’. The security guard sighed, ‘Sir, I thought you
said ‘Mussels’…in an instant the hydration line of questioning made sense, ‘So…these
are fossils…what kind’. This is when a small part inside of me quietly groans,
as I know that I have to give a micro-lecture on each carefully wrapped package…and
my flights departure is getting closer by the minute. The now growing assembly
of Security Guards wants to be entertained. Maybe I can count this as part of
my public engagement/outreach target for the year?

2 comments:

I found that the TSA has gotten a lot friendlier, and a lot more human in the course of the last few years. Yes, that means when something out of the ordinary pops up the officers will ask question out of curiosity beyond their job training, which does cost a few minutes - but so what? It's fun answering them :)

Prof. Phil Manning

Dr. Phil Manning is Professor of Professor of Natural History at the University of Manchester (UK), a Scientist in Residence at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, an STFC Leadership Fellow in Public Engagement and is a
Fellow of the Explorer’s Club. Prof. Manning’s research is both broad and interdisciplinary
with active research topics including: biomechanics, geochemistry and elemental
analysis (particularly specialising in synchrotron-based imaging techniques),
application of LiDAR-based imaging to both landscape and skeletal modelling, high-performance
computing work, mechanical analysis of biomaterials (both extant and extinct),
finite element analysis and imaging. Dr. Manning and his team have worked
extensively in the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota and Montana, but their
field program also includes sites in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Cayman Islands.

Dr. Manning plays an active role in science outreach,
contributing to open-days, lectures, workshops, fieldwork, etc. He has authored
both children and popular science books and is a regular contributor to public
speaking programs around the world, promoting the public engagement of science.
In 2013 Dr. Manning was appointed as the Science and Technology Research
Council (STFC) Public Engagement Fellow, so as to promote science and
technology to as wide an audience as possible.